How good is this Best I Faced? He fought Ismael Laguna when he was champ, post prime Lionel Rose, prime Roberto Duran, took Rodolfo Gonzalez's title then beat him again in the rematch, defended against Ken Buchanan who was on a roll post Duran and lost him title to De Jesus when De Jesus was between the 2nd and 3rd Duran fights. I wish he fitted Cervantes in there somewhere. Fascinating comments on Duran. https://www.ringtv.com/555055-best-i-faced-guts-ishimatsu/ The ex-champion graciously took time to speak to The Ring about the best he faced in 10 key categories. BEST JAB KEN BUCHANAN: He was always able to keep appropriate stance and angles from me in order to throw his jabs effectively. BEST DEFENSE SAENSAK MUANGSURIN: He had long reach and it was difficult for me to land my punches on him. FASTEST HANDS BUCHANAN: His jab and straight right were the fastest I experienced. Ismael Laguna was fast of foot as he quickly moved away just after hitting, but his punches were visible. Duran’s hands were also fast, but I could see and react against his punches. BEST FOOTWORK ESTEBAN DE JESUS: He was good at keeping good stance from me in both offence and defense. BEST CHIN MUANGSURIN: Since he was a legitimate junior welterweight, he was physically much stronger than me. I landed some solid shots, but he shook them off due to his physical strength. Duran had a strong chin, but I sometimes scored with good shots and gave him some damage. SMARTEST ISMAEL LAGUNA: He was good at getting points by not chasing any opponent too far. STRONGEST ROBERTO DURAN: Duran’s physical power and stamina was beyond description. He always kept punching with his physical power so that he wore down all opponents with his abundant stamina. His opponents fell as they didn’t like to absorb more punishment incessantly. That’s the way of Duran’s knockout. BEST PUNCHER DURAN: Duran, Muangsurin and Gonzalez were all hard-punchers, but the quality of their punching power was different respectively: Duran; hard punches in succession, Muangsurin; hard single pinpoint punch, Gonzalez; very solid puncher, though I could fortunately defeat him twice. BEST BOXING SKILLS LAGUNA: He knew the importance of judgement of distance. He always kept his own distance of hitting without getting hit. He always moved away after hitting me to make himself an elusive target. Buchanan also kept his distance by continually jabbing. De Jesus was also skillful with his constant footwork and hit-and-run tactics. Muangsurin was a southpaw boxer and therefore it was difficult for me to fight with him. BEST OVERALL DURAN: He was a super champion and enormously excellent in every aspect. His strength, as I felt in fighting him, was chiefly based on his tremendous stamina. As he had exceptional physical power, he could overwhelm his opposition with his volume of punches and his hand-rotation speed. He never got tired throwing double or triple as many punches as his opponent. Duran’s overall strength resulted in his monstrous stamina.
This is a damn good list. Ishimatsu seems to have a good recollection of the men he faced, which is somewhat rare amongst these articles- Especially from boxers who fought so long ago. Suzuki's rogues gallery is not a full "Who's Who" of the lightweight fighters at the time, but it definitely is damn close. A Cervantes match would've no doubt been sweet. Also, unrelated, but I was rewatching Pambele's fight with Pryor, and he looks so damn tall... I had to remember that he was only big for the division. 5'8 1/2, lol.
The best I faced series is pretty much my favorite read from Ring magazine. Such a unique look at the sport.
Ishimatsu unlike some fighters is very honest about his opinions. If ones know anything about the competition he faced we can certainly understand Buchanan having the best jab and fastest hands. Dejesus' having the best feet movement. Duran being the best overall..... Certainly seems to be honest assessments.
I totally agree Flash. Sometimes you can pick the honest ones a mile away and some suspect ones stand out too......and then there's the mostly good........lots of the responses read well but it's obvious there is still spite and bitterness toward a certain fighter and they are barely mentioned if at all or all sorts of excuses and perhaps disdain surface.
